Moving Forward: Proposals for Policy-Making in Long-Term Care At EU Level and affordable. The EU, through its EPSR action plan and through the future RRF and ESF+ should promote long-term care which is person-centred, community-based, integrated with health and social services, and aimed at maintaining and improving the quality of life of people using longterm care.
1. Supporting national authorities to end the institutionalisation of older people The shared European values of human dignity, equality and the respect for human rights should guide the development of social care and social services which respect the integrity of the person. Older people prefer to stay at home and in their communities as long as possible.
4. Recognising the importance of the workforce Quality of social services and social care depends greatly on investment, how investment is made, and the importance given to the workforce. Staff in health and social care play a vital role in supporting those in need as we have seen during the current pandemic. Still there is a lack of skills and training for specific long-term care professionals, with significant differences in their status and standardisation across countries.
The EU therefore needs to support the shift from institutional care to home and community care through supporting national authorities in the implementation of reforms in their care systems. One way this could happen is through ensuring that the future Recovery and Resilience Facility Funds (RRF) as well as the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) help to prevent institutionalisation and promote reforms for the transition to communitybased care. 2. Recasting the 2010 voluntary Framework for Social Services
The sector is facing a significant under-investment, which has become exacerbated by the Covid-19 crisis and translates into poor working conditions and an enormous recruitment gap. Considering workforce mobility, economic development and the current health and social crises, these issues should be jointly tackled at national and European levels.
Quality
Across Europe, Member States are developing, commissioning, and procuring services for older people in different ways. To ensure that EU guidance is up to the task, the EU should recast the 2010 voluntary Quality Framework for Social Services, based on the principles of ensuring quality of care and outcomes for people using services.
Programmes providing entry level training, supporting recruitment and retention, career progression and mutual recognition of qualifications would help address the shortage in the care workforce, which is an issue across Europe. The EPSR’s action plan should include work with national governments on a social care and social services workforce strategy supporting those living in areas of disadvantage and younger people, since this could also support the work of the EU in combating poverty and investment in local communities promoting the care economy.
Central to this recast should be a re-focus of the framework principles on the importance of outcome-based commissioning and procurement of social services guided by indicators that concentrate on the improvement in people’s lives. 3. Guaranteeing the right to quality long-term care Principle 18 of the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR) underpins the right of everyone to quality long-term care that is both accessible
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